Spicer apologizes after receiving sharp criticism for saying Hitler didn’t use chemical weapons | 11 April 2017 | White House press secretary Sean Spicer apologized on Tuesday for remarks that were viewed as downplaying the atrocities of the Holocaust. In criticizing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's alleged use of chemical weapons during a Tuesday briefing, Spicer said that even Adolf Hitler did not sink to that level of warfare and "was not using the gas on his own people in the same way that Assad is doing," despite Hitler's use of gas chambers to kill millions of Jews and others. Following hours of controversy, Spicer walked back his remarks late in the day.